Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s been powerful already this morning, hasn’t it? And then to hear the words of Isaiah saying it was God’s will to crush him, it was God’s will to put him on the cross, it makes us really think. We’re in the season of Lent. Our new sermon series, eternal, final words, eternal impact. We’re going to come over the next five Sundays and we’re going to hear again the seven statements or seven Words from Jesus as he completes the work of our salvation that is God’s his father sent him to do I know in our lifetime many of us have heard these Statements or these words over and over and so this year as we go through this Lenten journey I pray for the Holy Spirit to come to come and to give us fresh ears to hear Fresh hearts to receive and a renewed desire to be transformed by the power of the cross in our lives.
Today, as we continue to explore this first statement from the cross, I’m compelled to ask you a few questions. Have you ever struggled to forgive someone who’s wronged you? On the flip side, have you ever struggled to seek forgiveness for someone that you have harmed? And out of the two, which one was harder? Contemplate that as we go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Father, we thank you that in this season of Lent you come and you invite us to receive the gift of your grace and the gift of your love and the gift of the forgiveness of our sins. Dear Jesus, as you bring us to the foot of your cross, help us understand more fully the impact your prayer has on our lives. And Holy Spirit come and ready us now to receive God’s truth and come and take me out of your way. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Our gospel text this morning is found in Luke’s gospel chapter 23.
We pick it up, pick up the story in verses 32 to 37. Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed when they came to the place called the skull. There they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, He saved others, let Him save Himself, if He is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One. The soldiers also came up and mocked Him. They offered Him wine vinegar and said, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. The Gospel of our Lord. As we just read about Jesus hanging on the cross, I can’t help but wonder if you or I could really have done what He did. Father, forgive them if they had put nails in our hands and feet, especially if we felt like we didn’t deserve to be there. Honestly, I think that’s one of the reasons this first statement from the cross is so impactful and so powerful. For nowhere in these last few hours of Christ’s life do we see the love of God displayed so profoundly as we do in these first words. Spoken by our Savior from the cross. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. As the Holy Spirit calls us to come to the foot of the cross today, you and I do so knowing the scene, right? Jesus has been beaten within an inch of his life. We know that the crown of thorns has been shoved into his brow, and blood would have been running down his face. We come this morning knowing that the nails have already been pounded into his hands and in his feet and As he begins his time on the cross He has to heave himself upward in excruciating pain just to get enough breath to speak When he doers when he does it’s an enormous amount of pain excruciating beyond our ability to comprehend and yet in that moment His first words, Jesus uttered, was an intercessory prayer.
He’s pleading to the Father, calling Him, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing. This brings us to our first point this morning. The heart of the Savior during His time on the cross. Was to cry out to his father in prayer father forgive them. They do not know what they are doing Did you hear it? Did you understand it? This is not a prayer about him He cries out. He doesn’t say father help me. He doesn’t say father strengthen me He doesn’t say father come and avenge me. He doesn’t cry out come and rescue me or deliver me This isn’t a prayer of condemnation Or hate coming out of the, the words of our Savior. It’s not filled with anger. He doesn’t have an attitude saying, Daddy, go get him. His prayer was not about his needs. His prayer was about our needs. He didn’t call down a legion of angels to come and wipe out the whole world, although he had the power to do so. No, Jesus suffered the pain and anguish of his back being rubbed against that cross, heaving himself upward to get enough breath to say, Father, forgive them. You see, this is what he was born to do. The Lamb of God, the sacrifice of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. Have you ever wondered why he endured the pain of saying this prayer out loud? Didn’t he always, wasn’t he always in conversation with his dad? Why did he need to say it out loud? In order for us to understand it more fully, we need to go to John’s Gospel chapter 11 and listen to what Jesus said as he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. And he stood there and he, he said this. Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.
Jesus is going to endure hours of agony, and the thought in his mind is, I need to say this out loud for the benefit Of everyone that’s going to hear it, from the Roman soldiers, and the religious leaders, and the crowd that was there that day, all the way down through history, to you and me, as we hear it in our ears again today. Father, forgive them. He prayed out loud to help build our faith. Every time we hear it, we are invited to understand there’s something about this prayer that takes us, that should take us from believing that he said it, Changing our behavior because we heard it but in order for us to understand what it is about this prayer We need to know the true meaning of forgiveness. It brings us to our second point Forgiveness is an act of the offended to pardon the offense at their own personal expense You ever think about forgiveness that way? There’s no greater display of this definition of forgiveness than on the cross of Jesus Christ. On that cross, the forgiveness of God came at His own personal expense. Because God so loved the world that He did what? He gave His only Son to come and die in order to save the world. This is true forgiveness, friends. And true forgiveness is and has always been the heart of the Father. So from the cross, Jesus invites us today to hear that there is purpose in the words that he spoke. Father, forgive them. He says it in part because forgiveness is like receiving the greatest blessing we could ever imagine. Here again, the words of the psalmist that we spoke in the call to worship. Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them, and in whose spirit is no deceit. Our response to this blessedness is in verse 5. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
What a sweet blessing it is to be forgiven. by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our redemption can only be found in this pinnacle moment in the history of the world. John says, through the death of Jesus on the cross, God fulfilled the work that He had sent His Son to do. He was the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. Jesus was sinless. He was blameless. And the life that He lived was perfect. He came to live the life we should all live but we can’t because we’re sinners and now he is going to die the death That we deserve to die, but we’re not going to because he died in our place He was born to die And so he stepped out of heaven and he took on flesh and he dwelt among us Because as he, we hear in Hebrews, in fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And so Jesus walked down that long, painful road, carrying his cross to Calvary. And he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross. And he hung there dying because he knew that it was his blood that was required as the sacrifice. To take away the sins of the world and as he did this he lifted up his head toward the heavens and he prayed Father forgive them Paul tells us in Ephesians in him We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace That he lavished upon us It was the will of the father out of the love of the father that this is happening So you see, it is only in Christ Jesus that you and I can have redemption through his blood. It is only through Christ Jesus that you and I can say our sins are forgiven. They’re not covered up. They’re not swept under a rug. They are forgiven. And this knowledge should change us. It should move us to live differently than the world that doesn’t know about forgiveness. That brings us to our last point.
Through God’s forgiveness, we are called to forgive. The Bible powerfully exhorts us in Ephesians chapter 4, this way, Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Easier said than done. But through the cross, Christ extends his grace to us. It’s a grace that is beyond human comprehension, and he’s calling you and I to live and embody a radical type of forgiveness in our lives, and extend it to the lives of those around us. Today, by examining the depth of God’s mercy toward us, we are challenged. As a church congregation, to cultivate hearts that mirror Jesus love, releasing the chains of bitterness and resentment that comes when we harbor unforgiveness. And as you and I learn to forgive from a place of gratitude and humility, we become living testimonies of God’s boundless grace in this broken world that you and I live in. And having received the forgiveness of our sins, We are called to forgive others. I’ll ask you the same question I started with. Who is God calling you to forgive today? Who is God calling you to go and to seek forgiveness from as you remember how you harmed them? As their names or their faces come to your mind, I want to remind you of something. You will not be able to forgive them in your own power and your own strength. True forgiveness comes through the blood of the lamb, and it came at a very expensive price. If you’re here today and you are struggling with unforgiveness towards someone else, I get it. I understand it. I know what it was like for me. You see there was a 30 year period of time in my own life. When I couldn’t forgive someone in fact, I hated this person so badly and so fiercely that there were times I told family and friends I hope I never see them because I am afraid that I will do something physically to them and i’ll end up in prison But then I became a christian And God forgave my sins And every week I sat in the pews and in the chairs like you guys are today And I said the lord’s prayer just like we’re going to say and I said Those words, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And I wrestled with guilt for years. It was painful because I knew that I had this hatred in my heart, and I didn’t know how to let go of it. And then, early on, in one of the early years, that I was able to enjoy Lent for the first time. The pastors of the church that we were attending decided to go through the Lord’s Prayer on Wednesday nights.
And I gulped, because I knew what part of that Lenten season I was going to hate. And the time came. The weekend that I, the week that I dreaded was upon me. And I sat next to my husband, Rich. He was, he knew, he was used to me crying in church. I still do it today. But on this particular day as the pastor began to talk about forgiveness I started sobbing. I put my head down and I was weeping Throughout the whole entire sermon. I was wrestling with what I heard the Holy Spirit calling me to do I had to forgive this person who had devastated my life and I couldn’t do it And when the service was over, I ran down the hallway to the prayer chapel. All I wanted to do was be alone with my God. And yet, as I approached the door, there were two of my friends standing in it. Intercessors. I knew they were great prayer warriors, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want them to be in the way. And yet, there was Aunt Nancy, arms outstretched as she saw me. I fell into her arms, and I said, I can’t do it. I can’t forgive him, I cried out. I just can’t. How can God expect me to forgive? I’ll never forget what she said back to me. She said, I know you can’t, but God can. And Bill and I will pray for you until the Holy Spirit can get you to a place where you can pray. And that’s exactly what they did. She and Bill laid hands on me and they prayed and they prayed until all of the sudden I heard this whisper coming out of my mouth. And I said, Father, I forgive him. At that moment, a peace flowed into me that I’d never experienced before. The bondage of that unforgiveness that I had harbored for all of those years was gone. It was finally broken by the blood of Jesus Christ. And I was set free.
Dear friends, if God can free me from that kind of bitterness and that kind of hatred and that kind of unforgiveness, He can do it for you as well. Today, I pray that we can remember that on that cross, Jesus was thinking about you and I. And when He did, He asked His Father to forgive us. You see, Jesus loved us so much that He died for us, so that our sins could be forgiven. And He died for us so, so that we could have the strength and the ability to forgive others who have harmed us. And I know that in the last two services there have been people who need someone to pray. With they need someone to be Bill and Nancy for them And so after the services, I want you to know that there’s a prayer chapel right outside these doors and pastor Renee has graciously agreed to be there and if you need someone to pray with you Run to her arms as she will bring the presence and the forgiveness of God that you are seeking and the peace that you are seeking as you cry out, I forgive them. Jesus interceded for us as He hung on the cross and He said, Father, forgive them. And the Bible promises us that right now, in this moment, He’s still interceding for us as He sits at the right hand of the Father. And he cries out today in this moment. Father, forgive them. And Father, help them forgive as well. Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, we are humbled by your love. We are humbled that you would come into this world to be our Savior. That you would willingly die so that we could be forgiven and we might live. Your sacrifice brings peace in our hearts. It brings healing in our hearts. And we ask you now that you would renew us throughout this Lenten season. Help us keep our eyes fixed upon you, Jesus. Forgive us, Father, and help us forgive others. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
